Augusta: Maybe the tone of the opening day of the 2018 Masters tournament was set when the defending champion, Sergio Garcia, hit five balls into the pond in front of the 15th hole for an eventual 8-over-par 13. It matched the highest score ever recorded on any hole at the Masters, which began 1934.
Jordan Spieth, the 2015 Masters champion who was slumping not long ago, endured a topsy-turvy front nine later on Thursday before roaring through the back nine with five consecutive birdies to finish with a 6-under 66 and a two-stroke lead.
Spieth was closely pursued by a largely elite but subtly surprising field of challengers that included six major championship winners within five strokes of the lead — and a Masters first-timer with a severely sprained ankle.
Rory McIlroy was there, having shot a 69, and Phil Mickelson was one stroke behind McIlroy. Both only recently rediscovered their winning ways in tournament golf.
Garcia, however, finished with a 9-over 81, with most of the damage coming on the par-5 15th. When he finally got a shot to remain on the green, he needed only one putt to close out the hole.
- Sergio Garcia | Defending champion
“It’s one of those things,” Garcia said afterward. “It’s the first time in my career where I make a 13 without missing a shot. Simple as that. I felt like I hit a lot of good shots, and unfortunately the ball just didn’t stop.”
But of all startling things that transpired Thursday at Augusta National Golf Club, none was more unexpected than the way Tony Finau rebounded a day after dislocating his left ankle, shooting a 4-under 68. That score left Finau, who had injured himself while celebrating a hole-in-one in the tournament’s par-3 contest, in a tie for second place with Matt Kuchar.
“It’s nothing short of a miracle, if you ask me,” Finau said of his performance.
When Finau walked off the 18th green Thursday — with a slight limp — it had been only about 24 hours since television cameras captured him running backward with his arms over his head during the largely ceremonial par-3 contest.
Things went from winsome to gruesome quickly, as Finau’s left foot landed off-balance and the ankle bent awkwardly while he slid to the turf. The distorted ankle was plain to see, and the view became more cringeworthy as cameras captured Finau reaching down with his left hand and popping the ankle back into place.
Or as Finau, 28, said Thursday evening, looking back on the injury and a video of it that he had already watched several times: “I saw where it was and I knew where it needed to be. I popped it back in and tried to be as smooth as I could be.”
But on Wednesday evening Finau, who was playing in his first Masters, left the golf course to be examined by doctors. Withdrawing from the tournament seemed a likely outcome.
“It was pretty devastating,” his father, Kelepi Finau, said Thursday as he stood near the Augusta National clubhouse. “Tony had waited a long time to play in the Masters. It had been almost a lifelong dream, and now we were getting ready to pack up without him playing.”
But an MRI exam revealed that the only serious damage was torn ligaments. It was, Finau said, a sprained ankle, albeit a bad one.
“Tony called me about 11pm last night and said, ‘Hey, Dad, I think I’m going to play tomorrow,’” Finau’s father said.
After a hefty amount of athletic tape was applied to Finau’s ankle, he went to Augusta National and headed to the practice range early.
“I knew I’d have to compensate for the injury and couldn’t put all my weight on the left foot in my swing,” Finau said. “With my caddie, we came up with a plan that let me swing without making it worse — because I want to play four rounds here.”
Finau bogeyed the first hole on Thursday — a typical occurrence for Masters rookies, even those with two healthy ankles. And then he settled down.
“I think my injury masked a little of the pressure,” Finau said later, “because I had to worry about my foot. I had other things on my mind.”
After nine holes, the 6-foot-4 Finau, who is one of the longest hitters on the PGA Tour, was 3 under par. When he birdied the par-5 14th hole, he was in the lead at 4 under. He wobbled — sometimes literally — on the final holes but finished with an impressive up-and-down par on the 18th hole after he sprayed his approach shot into the crowd adjacent to the green.
A few minutes later, Kelepi Finau, who came to the United States in the mid-1960s from the island of Tonga, was in tears trying to summarise the turn of events. He talked about how his son, who was born and raised in Utah, had been inspired to give up football and basketball to concentrate on golf when he watched Tiger Woods’ inaugural Masters victory in 1997.
“Tiger made golf look cool,” Kelepi Finau said. “And to think Tony’s now been given this opportunity to play here is just wonderful.”
Kelepi Finau wiped his eyes.
“This is a holy place in the game of golf,” he said. “You have to have faith and feel the spirit of the grounds. They let my kid play today.”
